Flickr Favourites: February 22, 2015

{Vogue August 1942 ~ Amara}  


{Sparkling Silver ~ Joy Russell}  


{1954 winter fashion-skirt suit 2 ~ Mo}  


{February 1940, Jeanette MacDonald ~ Amy Jeanne}  


{Avondale Fabrics, February 1949 ~ The Bees Knees Daily}  


{Vintage winter ~ Svenia Schreiner}  


{Miss Marzie Brown - 2 ~ LLF archives2}  


{Our Siberian Husky Mishka, loving the snow! ~ Sheila Bobeldijk}  


{1951 ~ File Photo}  


{Coeds Enjoy Winter ~ University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives}  

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

♥ ♥ ♥


Does serenity have a colour? A season? A language all its own? I think that the answer to each of those questions is a resounding “yes!”. However, what classifies as such for me, may not be the same for you. The experiences you've lived, the part of the world you call home, the things that bring you peace, and myriad other elements will all factor in there.

I believe that serenity can be found in every season, though some, such as winter, do lend themselves more so to this powerful state of mind and being. February often gets a rather bad rap. Though the shortest month of the year, it can at times feel like the longest, and for many it's the last full month of winter weather, which makes us yearn for it to just be done and over with all the more.

Here in Canada, we're apt to experience wintry weather and temperatures until April (and for some, especially in more northerly locations, until May), but nevertheless, that almost palpable sense of longing for energetic new blooms, citrine hued sunshine, and open toed shoes start to kick in right about now all the same.

This is perfectly normal and okay, of course, but if even you're feeling “so done with winter” already, I encourage to stop and savour the ingrained serenity that February delivers all the same. There is a peaceful beauty to the way the world looks, smells and feels on a bracingly chilly winter's eve, just as there is to its colour palette of steely greys, powerful whites, gentle blues, and weathered browns.

As much as you may pine for spring and summer, take a moment and think about the last time you were melting faster than a crayon on hot pavement in July, when the whole world felt dizzyingly alive, pulsating with sticky electricity, and tell me you wouldn't have happily swapped at least one night of sleeping in front of the fan, in little more than your birthday suit, covers long kicked to the floor, for the chance to take a quiet walk in the snow on a frosting February morn?

It is human nature to want what we can't have and to long for the idyllic elements of life, but as we must take the seasons as they are dished out to us (save, of course, for hopping on a plan and embarking on a holiday somewhere warm, or conversely, chilly) and serve our spirits well by enjoying the best that each has to offer. Even if doing so can, admittedly, be a bit tricky when you're shoveling the driveway for the seventy-ninth consecutive day in a row or piling on so many layers you could practically stand on a street corner, undress, and have your own pop up clothing shop.

Do I miss summer? You better believe it, but I also long for certain aspects of winter, when June, July and August are here, so for now I'm content to put up with snow chains, steep heating bills, and short hours of daylight in order to enjoy and savour those elements of the season that I know I'll yearn for when I'm practically boiling on the beach in a sundress in half a year's time. Chief amongst which will always be, the immensely lovely serenity and stillness of winter.

More than 7,000 vintage ads at your fingertips

It's scarcely a secret that - like many of you as well - I wildly adore vintage ads and images. Be they for use here in blog posts or my own personal inspiration, rarely does a day go by when I don't spend time peering at yesteryear ads (and, fairly often, pinning them in the process).

I love the artistry, the workmanship, the creativity, (at times) the quirkiness, the immense variety, and the sense of how life was perceived (if only from a marketing standpoint) of early and mid-twentieth century advertisements. Many were illustrated by some of the foremost artists of their day, whereas others continue beautiful photography, and some are little more than text, but those words usually speak volumes both for the product in the ad itself, and for how the company behind it viewed their audience.

In today's world we're constantly bombarded with a seemingly unending array of ads across all manner of media channels, but back in the 1930s or 40s, for example, less of these channels existed (TV was in its infancy and the internet as we know it today was still decades away) and so marketers often relied on print ads as their most powerful and important way of reaching a broad demographic. I think that this point is part of the reason why so many vintage ads were so effective, and why they continue to appeal to many people to this very day.

In the hunt for vintage Christmas images to use here last December, I ran across something that I don't encounter all that often any more (having years of online ad hunting experience under my belt, that is): a new (to me) source of vintage ads.

This isn't just a wee little roundup, or even a modest sized one, we're talking about a full on Aladdin’s cave of old school advertisements, care of the fine folks at Duke University. Their Ad*Access website is an amazing digital collection of more than 7,000 vintage ads that are free to be viewed by anyone, and most of which are available for personal use (they have a copyright information page, if you need more specifics regarding terms of use).

At present, the ads in this hefty online collection span the years from 1915 to 1955, and are primarily centered around five categories: radio, television, transportation, beauty and hygiene, and World War II. According to the collection's about page, the "advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library".

For the first couple of days after I discovered this site, I spent as much of my free time as possible, pouring though the bevy of fascinating, entertaining, and sometimes just plain old practical, ads it houses, yet only began to scratch the surface of viewing all 7,000+ that appear there.

Over time I plan to check them all out, especially since I'll then have a solid knowledge of exactly what the collection contains, and thus can (hopefully) call to mind an ad I saw there that would be perfect for a future post while I'm putting it together.

Beyond the blogging side of things though, it's just plain fun to pursue so very many terrific 1910s-1950s ads (like the elegantly beautiful Elizabeth Arden advert from 1936 pictured below) in one handy-dandy spot.





I hope that you find Duke University's Ad*Access digital library as fascinating, helpful, and enjoyable as I did - and that you unearth an ad or two (or five hundred!) that you can use for your own vintage image related purposes, too.

Happy advertisement viewing, my dears!

A look back at January 2013

 Right around the end of 2012, my dear friend Bunny Monroe asked me if I was planning to put together a year-in-review post about some of the vintage outfits I'd worn throughout the past year. I'd already been contemplating the idea of doing so myself, but, as I replied to Bunny, I held off because (stickler for accuracy that I am) I technically did not start posting outfit snaps here (on any kind of regular basis) until last March, and as such a year-in-review of my outfits from 2012 would not truly encompass a full a year (I could have recapped what appeared here all the same, but again, it just didn't feel right to do a year end post that did not span topics from January to December).

Bunny's question however, got me thinking about the general topic of “in review” posts and early on in the initial days of this month, I decided that I'd debut something here on Chronically Vintage that I've not really done before, and that is to recap some of the highlights (good, bad or otherwise!) from the past month will all of you.

I'd like such posts to become a monthly event that transpire on the last day of the month, or if that's not possible (or if the last day happens to fall on a holiday and I'd prefer to dedicate a post to that special day) during the first few days of the next month, and in the spirit of ensuring something takes place starting in January, we'll launch this new series- which I'm calling "A look back at (whatever month)" - today.

I'm not rigidly mapping out how such posts will go, they're open to all kinds of potential and will, at their heart, be about looking back as some of the blog posts that stood out for me during the course of a given month, as well as some of the things that transpired in my life, which I might not have yet blogged about. Photos, links to interesting stories on other peoples' sites, and an array of diverse subject matter may pop up here as well.

Overall, I'd say that this month fell squarely into the mixed bag category. On a personal level there were some relatively long, stressful days, but also some terrific ones. The weather, in true January fashion, was bracingly cold, but we were treated to a fair bit of icy sunshine as well. I was able to accomplish a lot on some fronts, and almost none on others.

{January hit much like a snowball that you happen to see coming straight at you: freezing, a little rough, but ultimately worth smiling about. Image source.}

My heart and soul didn't want to say goodbye to either the Christmas spirit or 2012 (as I discussed in this post), both having been so tremendously lovely. I think that in the wake of such a great year and holiday season, January felt a bit akin to when you return home from a fabulous vacation and have a bit of a hard time readjusting to the usual ebb and flow of life again. I lingered on taking down the decorations, packing away the Christmas records, ceasing to bake shortbread cookies, and hanging up my holiday cardigan.

Ultimately though, all of those things took place, especially since I needed to devote my thoughts and attention to other going-ons, such as doing our personal and business taxes, medical appointments, and (infinitely more enjoyably than either of those things) thrifting with my mom at a Value Village 50% off sale in the middle of the month.

Much as one often feels after a great vacation, I think I was more worn out from the (albeit mostly positive) hecticness of 2013 then I initially realized. This point didn't hit me as the ball dropped at midnight on New Year's or even for a few days afterwards, but by around the 10th (which, as a neat side note, is exactly the halfway mark to my birthday), it did and I needed a few days to unwind and recharge.

Interesting, right around that time, our home internet service was inexplicably down for nearly six days. I kept up with some of my usual online activities via my iPhone (an awesome recent Christmas gift from Tony) while out and about, but for the most part, I fell behind on emails, social media, blog feeds, etc for a few days and then spent the next week feverishly trying to keep up. This only wore me out more (I'm all for hiatuses, I just prefer them to be planned ones!), but it didn't shake the happiness from my spirit that was present as 2012 came to a close, and I'm very grateful for that.

As we sit here on the morning of the last day of January, I still feel like my batteries need some more boosting, but their energy levels, so to speak, are gradually climbing back up, and I'm sure the lovely festivities (Groundhog Day, Valentine's, the one year anniversary of when we moved to B.C. last year, etc) of this month will help that cause further.

Here on the blogging front a lot transpired this month, and before I go any further, I want to thank each and every one of you for your tremendously lovely comments, support, encouragement, help, and friendship throughout this month. As I remarked to Tony numerous times while reading and approving blog comments, I feel so blessed to have such amazing readers and online friends.

So what took place here throughout January? The year kicked off with a post that highlighted The importance of having a blogging schedule, then in New hair for the New Year I shared with all of you about the fact that due to years of ongoing hair loss, the time had finally come for me to start wearing a wig. The incredible outpouring of kindness and support that I received in response to both that post and my wig unveiling (a photo from which is pictured below) a few days later will stay with me for the rest of my life.

As the month rolled on, I talked about one of my vintage holy grains in The kind of vintage piece that pipe dreams are made of, celebrated six years of wearing glasses, explored how vintage clothes sizing works, took a peak at How I store, and why I love, vintage bangle bracelets; and in a very intimate post, I shared with you that Chronically Vintage and I are both now on Facebook for the first time.

There were other posts, too, but these are some of the ones that standout most for me from the past month. Another pair of highlights occurred when I won two online giveaways: a splendidly pretty cardigan from the gorgeous blog Circus Girl, and a fabulous Arthelia's Attic snood from Haute Rockabilly Fashionista.
In the case of the latter, I own my win entirely to the incredible kindness of Rockabilly Belle from Rockabelle Bombshell who, in what sincerely stands out as one of the most thoughtful gestures anyone has ever done for, donated her entry to me with the following giveaway comment, "I would love it if you would count my blogging of the Snoods towards Jessica's at Chronically Vintage, she is such a sweetheart and wants one so bad."

It's true, I did, but I never in a million years imagined that I'd end up winning one because of someone else's random act of kindness. Amongst a month that wasn't always a bed of roses, Rockabilly Belle's generosity and sweetness shine luminously as a definite point of awesomeness, and I cannot begin to thank her enough for the fact that I'm now waiting for my first even Arthelia's Attic snood to arrive because of her (with an outfit post including it to follow once it does).

So what does February have in store as we look ahead? In part, as always, only time will tell, but I can let you in on the fact that I'm planning posts on topics as diverse as the history of maple syrup, my first pink Christmas tree, and plenty of Valentine's Day festivities.

{Sno’ fooling, I have high hopes for February and suspect it will be a great month when all is said and done. Image source.}


Though I wouldn't call this past month my favourite January of all time, it was by absolutely no means the worst either. In so many ways, it was simply January, simplistic though that may sound. Cold, busy, taxing, sometimes quite fun, and the only way possible to begin the year anew.

Happy last day of January, my wonderful dears - may February bring us all nicer weather, scores of joy, and an extra big dose of some of the things (and people - in the case of the 14th) that we love the most!

How to have fun with fresh cranberry sauce

According to a cute 1947 illustrated recipe ad from Eatmor Cranberries (don’t you just love that name?), the secret to having a blast with this tart, juicy, crimson hued fruit it to whip up their speedy, scrumptious Ten Minute Cranberry Sauce recipe.

I'm not one to argue there, given that a mere three ingredients and just 1/6th of an hour are required to bring flavourful homemade cranberry sauce to the table.

While those of us here in Canada tucked into our roast turkey, mashed potatoes, and mountains of fluffy stuffing last month, the fine folks south of the 49th are gearing up to celebrate Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, which is why this morning seemed like the ideal time to share this festive vintage recipe with you.

If you've already made, bought, or otherwise have plans for Thursday's cranberry sauce, fear not, this ultra simple recipe (which I've made, and can attest is a gem - I added a little mandarin orange zest towards the end of cooking for an extra hit of flavour, which is similar to the suggestion in the recipe itself for the addition of tangerines) is wonderful to have on hand for Christmas, next Thanksgiving, or any time you're in the mood for some homemade cranberry sauce.



{Whether you try one of the spins suggested above or stick with the three ingredient classic, this lovely cranberry sauce recipe is the kind of classic that will always remain a beloved holiday favourite. Image via Charm and Poise on Flickr.}



I think the suggestions provided here on how to further jazz up this sauce are terrific. I’d never thought of putting bananas in cranberry sauce, but now I'm wildly curious to know if this combination works or it it's as eyebrow raising as I suspect. Mint is always lovely with cranberries, especially if you plan on serving this sauce as an accompaniment to lamb.

Almonds are great here, as is the addition of a little almond extract, or if you're not an almond person, then pistachios or even shelled pumpkin seeds for a pleasant hit of crunch. I adore pears and cranberries and think that's my favourite of the add-in ideas they offer.

Celery is a good addition, though if you were heavy handed with it in your stuffing or elsewhere, you may want to forgo using celery in your cranberry sauce. If you're more of an apple person, then you could certainly use those instead of pears, too (I'd go with a somewhat sweet apple, such as Fuji or Red Delicious to help offset the tangy tartness of the berries).

I certainly know how busy the day before Thanksgiving can be, so I'll wrap this fun little 1940s recipe post up here for now, but not before I wish each and every one of you who will be celebrating it tomorrow, a deeply, serenely beautiful Thanksgiving Day tomorrow. Having online friends like you is a blessing I count every time we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

Receiving and passing along the Versatile Blogger award

When I first started this site three years ago, blog awards were somewhat more common then they are today. Perhaps there was a fad component to them, and while I know that not everyone was a major far, I've always felt sincerely touched when someone had deemed me and my blog worthy of receiving any kind of accolade.

Earlier this year, in the hectic midst of everything surrounding our move, I received a charming blogging award called the Versatile Blogger, from not one, but two, completely lovely ladies: Bunny Moreno from the fantastic blog The Musings and Adventures of a Pinup Mama, as well as from Tracey Steel whose blog, Breathing English Air, always teams with beautiful images of the UK and great posts to accompany them.

The rules attached to receiving this blog are very straightforward and easy to follow:

1. Add the award to your blog.

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.

3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.

4. List the rules.

5. Award to 5 or more bloggers.

6. Inform each of those 5 by leaving a comment on their blog. (I always feel like this point is optional, but you can certainly do it, if you'd like)

I always enjoy reading people's lists of various fun, interesting, or eyebrow raising (as the case may be!) facts about themselves, so without further ado, here are seven points about myself that you may not know.

 

♥ Seven facts about me ♥

1. Snugly, medium to heavy weight blankets and I are BFFs. For as long as I can recall, I've slept much, much better when I have soft, comfortable, fluffy blankets and and/or duvets on me (even in the summer). I fully believe this stems from a guest room at the house my paternal grandparents lived in when I was younger, which had the softest, most dreamily fantastic blankets I've ever encountered.

2. I'm taller then they'd said I be. When the doctor did an adult height project on me as a youngster, they said I'd not likely be any taller than 5 feet when I was fully grown (not that there's anything the matter with that height of course). I'm happy to report that I proved them wrong by a whole two inches! Though it means I'll never have supermodel gams that go on for miles, I really don't mind being petite one bit and am totally content with my adult height.

3. My childhood (school) nickname was "Jay": In elementary school my best was called Karen, which meant that her name started with a "K". As mine began with a "J", and these two letters are side-by-side in the alphabet, we came up with the idea of calling each other "Kay" and "Jay". After a while of doing so, other people began to notice and started using those names for us, too, even to the point where our teachers were doing it. Well into high school, even through mine and Kay's paths had diverged around middle school and we didn't hang out very often any more, people would still call me "Jay" sometimes.

4. I'm not superstitious at all, except for...: The act of throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill some. It's not that I actually believe anything negative will happen to me if I don't toss a pinch over my shoulder, I think it's just a learned habit I picked up as a child and never outgrew. As it's my one quasi-superstition, I keep doing it just for fun.

5. Generally speaking, I don't read modern fiction. It's not that I have anything against this literary genre, goodness no! It's just that I find my interests tend to lay more in nonfiction and classic lit. Though I read more modern fiction as a child (due, no doubt, in part to school book reports), I've always been this way and adore adding nonfiction and reference books to our home library.

6. I can touch anywhere on my own back. While I don't claim to be especially flexible (and am definitely not double jointed!), I am able to touch absolutely any spot on my back (while sitting, standing or laying down) - which makes zipping up my own dresses a breeze!

7. I never thought I was a hat person until...: Growing up in an era of baseball caps and floppy denim hats (remember those ones with the matching flowers on the front smack dab in the middle of brim?), I didn't feel like hat's worked well with my face shape at all. Imagine my delight then as a I got older and discovered that the issue wasn't hats in general, just most modern ones. Turns out many vintage hat styles (especially those from the 40s and 50s) suit me well, and as a result I quickly morphed into a die hard chapeau lover (and wearer).

{All images are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

♥ ♥ ♥ 

In turn I'd like to pass the Versatile Blogger award onto the following five wonderful blogs.

1. Ghosts and Garters Vintage

2. Love Letters from London

3. Miss Magpie's Musings

4. Old Haunts (a new vintage blog in town, be sure to stop by if you haven't discovered Kate's site yet)

5. VirginiaRetro

♥ ♥ ♥

If you've already received this award (and blogged about it) from someone else, please don't feel like you need to do it again. Either way, if you do  (or have already done) it, definitely let me know, as I'd love to read your random facts, too.

Many, many thanks to Bunny and Tracey again for thinking of me and sharing the joy of this delightful blogging award with me. I wholeheartedly appreciate it, sweet gals.  ♥

This lovely 1940s cake is really peachy keen

Awwww, you gals...you always know how to make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you deeply for the many wonderful, cheery comments you left on my last post about the fact that I'll soon be jumping coastlines, saying farewell to Ontario and nestling back into my home province of British Columbia.

I absolutely loved getting to share that wonderful piece of news with all of you all, and look forward to keeping you in the loop as things progress on that exciting front.

In celebration of how sweet you all are, and the fact that I'll soon be calling B.C.'s Okanagan Valley home again, I thought it would be oodles of fun to feature one of the area's finest fruits in this week's vintage recipe.

Though the Okanagan produces more fruit than you can shake a stick at (apples, pears, nectarines, apricots, grapes, and cherries to name but a few, the later of which I recalled some of my memories of last spring in this post), few are quite a delicious or memorable as its fantastically good summertime peaches.

Given however, that we're in the thick of winter, fresh peaches are not in abundance or at the their finest right now (at least not in the western hemisphere), so instead in this delightful Peaches 'n' Cream Cake one can easily use canned sliced peaches, as the recipe itself suggests.

 

{There are few tastes that personify the spirit of summer better than peaches, the star ingredient of this lovely 1940s cake recipe, which comes by way of Look Homeward, Harlot on Flickr. Click here for a larger version of this simple, but oh-so-tasty peach stuffed dessert recipe.}

This cake is just plain pretty. No matter how stingingly cold the temperature, or sombrely grey the sky during January, this dessert will help bring a much needed jolt of summertime flavour and beauty to any table.

Come the steamy, exhilarating warm days of July and August, when peaches are at their finest peak, you can (and should!) whip out this recipe again and make it the star of your vintage recipe filled picnic, barbeque or cozy al fresco meal for two.

I certainly will be next summer, bushels of soft, golden hued peaches always ready and within arm's reach for terrific dessert recipes like this scrumptious whipped cream topped cake. I can hardly wait!

Vintage 365: 1940s ad reminds parents not to leave their babies alone aside while they go shopping

✯ Day 29 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

How often have you heard people of our grandparent's (or parents, depending on your own age) generation refer to the mid-20th century as "simpler times"? Despite the intense hardships our grandparents and great-grandparents enduring during the Great Depression, WW2, and the aftermath of rebuilding much of the globe and getting the economy back on track after the second world war, in my experience, many people that I've spoken to who were alive during these years found them to times that they looked back on with fondness and reverence.

Yes, life was complicated in many ways (hasn't it always been in one capacity or another though?), but it was also wonderful - and perhaps indeed, simpler. Back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s children were not only generally allowed to play outside sans adult supervision, they were expected to. Communities were often more tightly knit, folks knew and spent time with their neighbours, and as a whole society was a more trusting place.

However, even in these seemingly safe times, the (US) National Safety Council still felt it best to remind people periodically about certain practices that they felt were best to be avoided, such as leaving your baby outside in its stroller/pram when popping inside a shop (as the ad above, which comes via Captain Geoffrey Spaulding's Flickr stream shows). Lest your jaw drop at the mere thought, I can assure you that in talking to my grandparents and various elderly neighbours over the years, that this practise (which is still done in some parts of the world) was once very common (especially in smaller towns).

Today many would shudder at the notion of leaving their baby or young child unattended in public for even so much as one red second, and (for better or worse) that may indeed by far be the safest approach in these unpredictable times. Yet back in the 40s when this National Safety Council ad ran across America, such practises were viewed as completely normal. I think that people were more trusting of each other in those days; the unthinkable idea that someone could kidnap your baby from its stroller was simply not one that many dared to entertain.

However, as time rolled on and (whether in reality or merely perception) the world began to be viewed as a less safe, more hostile environment, mothers stopped leaving their children outside when the went into shops (the advent of shopping carts with seats for children to sit in as mother shopped was also no doubt part of the reason less babies were left outdoors), and today the idea seeing an ad such as this one would surely seem comical to most.

Yet, as my grandmother is fond of saying - and I really do believe - those were simpler, better times when men still tipped their hats to ladies, borrowing a cup of sugar from the family next door was commonplace, and babies really did wait outside stores as their mother's did the weekly shopping.

Vintage 365: A&P ad for Marvel bread makes me long for the golden days of advertising

✯ Day 8 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

In this world where it seems that technology becomes out-dated before it even reach store shelves, and consumers are bombarded with ever flashier commercials for a million things we actually don’t need to get by, it can be nothing short of heartwarmingly special to look at vintage ads and let feelings of nostalgia for simpler, better time flow over you.

I saw this classic 1940s A&P supermarket ad featuring Marvel Bread a couple of days ago (on Lushie Peach’s Flickr stream) and couldn’t shake it from my mind. While it’s certainly charming (and there's no denying that gal's hat is fabulous!), it wasn’t the image, font or design that drew me to so much as the message in the text that encourages shoppers not to be “bread squeezers” (in other words, don not squeeze loaves of bread to determine if they’re still fresh).

It’s so incredibly easy to take for granted the fact that seemingly commonplace things like having best before dates on much of the food we buy, were once novel concepts - even as recently as a few decades ago. In vintage ads like this I find much to be grateful for and also much to wish was different about today's world. They make be long for a time I never actually in lived firsthand, but feel as though I truly belonged to. Where women always looked elegant, even when grabbing a few groceries, and the idea of having a best-by date on bread was a cool new concept :)